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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

When we were first married we lived in Givat Mordechai and had an older neighbour who personified the old world Secular-Labour-Zionist ideology.

He was very careful in his use of Hebrew and often corrected my use of language. To him the revival of the Hebrew language was one of the great achievements of the Zionist movement and it distressed him to hear the language abused, particularly in the media.

He was one of the first people I knew to get an Internet connection which he used to study Tanach, which was one of his hobbies. He was delighted when we named our first child Yehoshua a biblical name,

On Shabbat afternoons he used to drive to Har Herzl to meet with other like minded people and in the Shadow of Herzl's grave used to discuss and study Zionist text, poetry, and ideology.

To me he represented the world view of Ben Gurion and the other founders of the State who came here out of a firm sense of Jewish history, language, and geography based largely on the Tanach.

Unfortunately these values seemed difficult to pass onto future generations. Our neighbour's children all left Israel and grandchildren hardly spoke Hebrew. Similarly Ben Gurion and Chaim Weiztmann had children or grandchildren who left Israel.

It seems that this inability to pass on a love for Eretz Yisrael and Torat Yisrael was a big failing of the Labour Zionist movement.

This is why it was so refreshing to see the son of our current prime minister, who comes from several generations of prominent Zionists is continuing in his father's footsteps, not only in his love for Eretz Ysiarel, but he has won the Jerusalem Regional Bible competition and will go on to represent the region in the National Championships on Yom Haatzmaut.

Well done Avner Netanyah, may you continue in your father's footsteps in your commitment to the Jewish People and the Tanach.

(As an aside, the article uses the phrase "נתניהו ג'וניור" this abuse of the Hebrew language is a great example of what upset my former neighbour)